Lisa Espinelli

I am an intern with the Selah SD program. Although I just started doing Spiritual Direction as an intern since May 2022, I have walked with people from diverse cultural backgrounds over the course of the last 4 decades as a Pilipino-American missionary in the US. My passion is to see people be more and more like Jesus. My years of mentoring leaders have helped me be a better listener and be good at asking questions. However, in spiritual direction the focus is not on my listening skills or on asking incisive questions how but in how well I listen to God for others. I learning a lot as a “spiritual doula” or a midwife for the soul. Like a midwife, I quietly and sympathetically listen with a directee until a truth or an insight is birthed that sheds light on the directee’s soul and life with Jesus. Through silence, Scripture, evocative questions, and prayer, we listen together to the Holy Spirit’s voice. We do not come for spiritual direction with our fixed ideas. We come humbly and expectantly. The goal is not to solve a problem. The goal is to be with Jesus and hear Him speak.